1. Field of the Invention
An aspect of this disclosure relates to a method of fabricating a scaffold for tissue engineering.
2. Description of the Related Art
There exists a treatment where body tissue lost due to, for example, surgery or an injury is regenerated using somatic cells or stem cells, and the body tissue is transplanted into a patient to recover the lost body tissue. To regenerate body tissue in this treatment, a scaffold (matrix) is necessary to support inoculated cells until the body tissue is regenerated by the cells.
For example, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2006-136673 discloses a block-shaped scaffold for tissue engineering made of a bioabsorbable polymer. The disclosed block-shaped scaffold for tissue engineering has a three-dimensional porous open-pore structure with a pore diameter of 5 to 50 μm and irregular interconnected pores that occupy 20 to 80% of the cross-sectional area of the block-shaped scaffold for tissue engineering. Also, the block-shaped scaffold for tissue engineering has an elastic modulus of 0.1 to 2.5 MPa, and a modulus of volume change of 95 to 105% when immersed in water for 24 hours. Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2006-136673 also discloses polyglycolic acid and polylactic acid as examples of bioabsorbable polymers.
Compared with a sponge-like scaffold for tissue engineering, the disclosed block-shaped scaffold for tissue engineering has a higher elastic modulus that provides excellent shape stability, and does not greatly change in shape even when it absorbs water.
Here, there is a demand for a scaffold for tissue engineering that can maintain its structure even when used to culture and differentiate cells over a long period of time, and has an excellent cell differentiation potency.